The pen plotters came from Tektronix and the inkjets either free or via
-pete

Late to the thread but I owned a HP DesignJet 1050C until recently. It's similar to what was on the curb in Arlington, MA I believe?

They're beautiful machines. The ink carts can be had expired and will run. The drive belt will degrade and turn to mush after ~14 years or so depending on where it's stored. Replacements are $20 from eBay.

The ink carts and heads run $900 new but used I used to get them dirt cheap via ebay, always expired by 10 years or so. Yellow is the first to go.

Standard inkjet white paper from ebay is like $20 a roll for linear feet at 36" wide.

My machine was 4 color not 6 color (no pastels.) Used it to print cheap signage for a Makerfaire in Norfolk, signage for an arcade and video game music event called MAGFest in the DC area and a few other events. I sold it because I wasn't as involved in running events + there is one at the local makerspace. Plus needed room for more arcades/pinballs.

New machines might lock out expired ink carts though.

I have owned pen plotters in the past as well, they are fun to watch.

But the HP designjets are cool machines. But physically somewhat large as there is a lot of extra room on the left and right of the print area compared to similar machines from Epson.

There are videos on youtube on swapping things like the ink delivery system and the drive belt. I feared actually doing to work to replace the drive belt but really it took like 30 minutes after watching the video and having torx nearby.

--
: Ethan O'Toole


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